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It started out some time around 2001 or 2002, with too much spare time, some of which was spent reading Douglas Adams' The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul

"She passed the time quietly in a world of her own in which she was surrounded as far as the eye could see with old cabin trunks full of past memories in which she rummaged with great curiosity, and sometimes bewilderment. Or, at least, about a tenth of the cabin trunks were full of vivid, and often painful or uncomfortable memories of her past life; the other nine-tenths were full of penguins, which surprised her. Insofar as she recognised at all that she was dreaming, she realised that she must be exploring her own subconscious mind. She had heard it said that humans are only supposed to use about a tenth of their brains, and that no one was very clear what the other nine-tenths were for, but she had certainly never heard it suggested that they were used for storing penguins."

This idea strung a loud and reverberating chord. It was (and I'm sure there are about to be badly mixed metaphors at any moment) built on during a long and hypothetical breakfast* with a friend, as to what happened to the percentages of penguins in your brain if you were to starting thinking of penguins. Would you then have 91% of your mind occupied by penguins? His unequivocal answer to this was that no, it meant that the penguins were escaping, which must be a sign of impending madness.

Oddly enough, I've misremembered the quote over time, so that I was utterly certain (until I dug the quote out again just now) that the penguins were actually in the packing cases themselves. Hmmm...

* at the Globe Cafe in Coogee, for the sake of historical accurancy and / or pedantry. Either way, yum...

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{About Penguins & Parentheses}

Sticky Penguin blogs about food (making it, eating it, and going in search of it), words (both real and invented, and often about food), stray thoughts (frequently relating to food), and occasional travels (usually in pursuit of food). Sensing a theme yet? Oh, and there are penguins as well. Lots of penguins.